Houses of the Holy S2 Ep14
by Bad Day at Black Rock
Summary: The media focuses in one several murders in a town that the perps are saying an angel told them to do it. Will this give faith to the Winchesters, or destroy it?
1. Chapter 1

Author's note: These fics are based on real episodes of Supernatural. The characters and plots belong to the creator and writers for the show. If you would like background on the new character you can read the previous episodes.

Houses of the Holy

Kayla closed the dresser drawer as Sam came out of the bathroom, pulling a white scrub shirt over his t-shirt. She smiled to him.

"Aw Sam, you look cute in scrubs." She was going to use the term hot, but she didn't want to make Dean nervous.

Dean rolled his eyes at his brother's sheepish smile. "Yeah Casanova, get in there and bag you a stripper."

"Hooker."

"Whatever."

"Ok, Kayla, seriously." Sam looked at her.

"I won't let him leave, you have my word." Kayla was being put on babysitting duty.

"Are you sure? Don't let him talk you into it."

"Hey, if he gets out of hand, I'll cuff him."

"To the bed?" Dean chimed in hopefully.

"Stop there." Sam grabbed his wallet. "I'm going."

Dean grinned at her as Sam walked out. "Let's find out if the Magic Fingers really have any magic." He reached over and dropped a couple quarters into the stand beside the bed. The bed began to vibrate. "Oh yeah."

Kayla laughed quietly. "You know, for someone who thinks he so slick, you're kind of a dork sometimes."

When Sam came back that afternoon, Dean was laying on the "Magic Fingers" bed, while Kayla sit on the other bed looking through the folder on this job. This was the second murder in town where the perpetrator has said an angel of God told them to do it.

"Guys."

Kayla looked up. "Hey, how'd it go?"

"I don't know if she's…Dean." Sam tried to get his attention.

"Headphones."

Sam stepped over and hit his foot. "Dude."

He jumped and opened his eyes. When he saw Sam he took off his headphones. "Oh hey man." He sat up, as he did the bed stopped vibrating. "Damn, that was my last quarter."

Kayla shrugged. "You bled me dry."

Dean turned to Sam. "You got any quarters?"

Sam rolled his eyes. "No."

The story he got from the _ex_-hooker was that she had been visited by an angel of God, who told her that she was to kill a man that was guilty down to his very soul. When she got the sign she was waiting for, she stabbed the man in the chest no questions asked. She didn't know what the man had done, or his name for that matter. All she knew is that God wanted him destroyed, and she obeyed.

Dean was done with this job before Sam was even finished. Angels? Please. "At least we know this chick is just a nut job. There's no such thing as angels."

Sam and Kayla both stopped to look at him. Sam spoke first. "Dean, there's ten times more lore on angels than on anything else we've hunted."

"Yeah? Well there's a ton of lore on unicorns too. In fact, I hear that they ride on silver moonbeams and shoot rainbows out of their ass."

Sam got a devastated look on his face and slowly sat on the bed. "Wait, there's no such thing as unicorns?"

"That's cute. I'm just saying that there are some legends that you file under bull crap."

Kayla shifted on the bed. "Why would you completely discredit the idea of angels, of all things?"

Great. "Don't tell me you believe in angels."

She shrugged, a little apprehensive about the subject. "So?"

"Ah Christ. Not Christ, you know what I mean. You two are way off on this, you'll see. There's nothing holy going on here."


	2. Chapter 2

When they went to the house of the second victim, the angel on the doorstep didn't exactly spell out sign from God. At the same time, the remains of human skeleton they found in his basement didn't spell out innocent church goer either. Whatever told the hooker this guy was guilty knew what they were talking about.

Which is why it was only natural to check the next victims house immediately after they found out it happened. A local drunk went up to the home of a man and stabbed him in the heart, then went to police and confessed. He claimed an angel told him to do it.

It was easy to get into the old house; Dean and Kayla started searching the house while Sam made light work of the home computer. His fingers clicked quickly across the keyboard while he worked on a locked file.

"Ok I got it." Dean leaned over him. "They're e-mails to a woman name Jen…scratch that, a girl, thirteen."

A wave of disgust washed through him. "I don't want to hear this."

"These e-mails are pretty personal, even setting up a time and place to meet. They were supposed to meet today."

This was sounding more and more like divine intervention to Kayla.

"Huh, well I guess it's good timing if you're gonna stab someone. Most demons seek revenge, this one is like a do-gooder."

"Like an avenging angel?" Sam stated. "How else do you explain it?"

Dean blew him off. "We'll find a way to explain it." He pulled a paper off the man's printer. "For instance, it looks like they went to the same church." He held up the flier. He'd find a way out of this angel junk yet.

_::Our Lady of Angels::_

Dean and Kayla took on the church visit. They figured it would be easier to look like a couple looking for a new church. The place was fairly large considering the neighborhood it was in, and very traditional on the inside. Large archways, endless stained glass windows, older wooden pews, it brought back memories for Kayla. She spend a lot of time in church after Braden.

"So you're looking to join the parish."

"Yeah well we don't feel right unless we hit a church every Sunday." Dean answered him, he ignored the look Kayla gave him. He never saw her as the religious type.

"Well we're happy to have you, it's nice to have some young blood around here."

"Hey listen I gotta ask and no offense, but, the neighborhood…"

"It's gone down hill no doubt, but that's why what the church does is so important. Like I always say, you can expect a miracle but in the meantime you work your butt off."

Kayla nodded. "We heard about the murders, they said an angel made them do it?"

"Yes, poor misguided souls. To think an angel would appear and incite a murder. It's tragic."

That got Dean a little excited. "So you don't believe in all those angel traditions."

"Oh I absolutely believe. Kind of goes with the job description."

Kayla tried not to laugh; Dean just needed to get over this. "Father, that painting, it's the archangel Michael isn't it?"

"Yes," he walked over to the painting. "With his flaming sword, fighter of demons, holy force against evil."

She continued her point. "So they're fierce, aren't they? Warriors."

"Well I like to think of them as more loving than wrathful. But yes, a lot of scripture paints angels as God's warriors."

Outside the steps of the church was a small collection of candles and cards in honor of Father Gregory. He used to preach at the church until he was gunned down for his car keys in front of the church. _Whoever did that is definitely going to hell._ Of course now this gave Dean more reason to believe this thing was a vengeful spirit. Kayla was starting to doubt as well.


	3. Chapter 3

Sam was irritated as they drove to Father Gregory's grave. He'd been pissed ever since they picked him up and told them about his murder. Dean was going to stick to anything that meant there was no such thing as angels, no such thing as God. His stubborn opinion was going to make this job harder than it needed to be.

Kayla followed Dean into a closed section of the crypt. "I don't see why you can't admit a _possibility_ that this might be an angel. Just a possibility."

"Because that would be like admitting the possibility that it _might_ be Santa Clause. See, there is no possibility, because Santa doesn't…"

"Yeah, I get it."

He brushed some dust off a stone. "You're all about this angel thing aren't you? After everything that's happened to you, why would you think there's a God in the first place?"

"You could stand to have some faith Dean."

"Yeah ok." They went back to the other room and found Sam lying unconscious on the floor. "Sammy?" Dean kneeled beside him. "Sam?"

He jerked awake with a start and looked around.

"You ok?"

"Yeah." His voice sounded a little in awe as he looked at the angel statue in front of him. "Yeah I'm ok." He climbed to his feet.

Dean grimaced. "You saw it didn't you?"

Sam nodded. "I saw it, Dean…I saw an angel."

"What'd it say?" Kayla asked.

"No, why do you think it was an angel?" Dean demanded.

He sighed quietly. "Because it just, appeared to me in a flash of light and this feeling washed over me like, like peace. Like grace. It knew who I was Dean."

"It's just a spirit, and in case you forgot, not the first one who could read minds." Sam stared at him. "Let me guess, you were chosen to smite some sinner, you just have to wait for the divine bat signal."

"Yeah actually."

"And I don't supposed you asked this 'angel' what this guy did?"

"I did actually, and the angel told me. He hasn't done anything, yet, but he will."

Enough was enough. Dean stood with a laugh. "This is unbelievable."

"Dean someone is going to do something awful and I can stop it!"

"You're supposed to be bad too, maybe I should just stop you!" Dean calmed himself and sat down. "You know what, I get it. You have faith, good for you. I'm sure it makes things easier on you guys. You know who else had faith like that? Mom. She used to tell me that angels were watching over me every night, protecting us."

"You never told me that."

"There's nothing to tell, she was wrong. There were no angels protecting her."

Kayla sighed internally; it made sense now. She had originally thought that his lack of faith came from his upbringing with John, she didn't know it stemmed back to his mother.

"There's no higher power." Dean continued. "There's no God. There's only chaos and violence and random, unpredictable evil that comes out of nowhere. I'll start believing in this stuff when one of you can produce some hard proof, you got any?" Of course they couldn't answer, they couldn't even fight his logic. It was much easier to disprove God than it was to prove his existence.

"So ok." Kayla surrendered. "Maybe it's Father Gregory."

"Maybe? Sweetheart there's no maybe. Come on."

Dean took them to the tombstone of Father Gregory. As luck (Dean's anyway) would have it, there was wormwood growing on his particular stone and nowhere else. Wormwood was associated with spirits who weren't at rest. Just the sight of it dampened Sam's spirit; maybe he was still wrong.

Dean however seemed very satisfied. "And you want more proof I'm sure, so let's summon his spirit."

"Summon it here, in the church."

"Don't you want to know for sure?" He looked between Sam and Kayla, it wasn't really his thing to crush people's personal beliefs, but he wasn't going to listen to bullshit either. This was for the best. "If it's Father Gregory, he shows. If it's an angel, nothing happens."

One séance coming up.


	4. Chapter 4

The supplies were easy enough to find at the local grocery store, though they had to make some substitutions. Not everyone had the total séance shopping list in stock. Kayla swung one of the bags absently at her side as they walked out.

"All I'm saying is that we were gonna buy a placemat instead of an alter cloth, we could have gone Hello Kitty instead of Spongebob."

Dean smirked. "I think Spongebob will be more appealing to Father Gregory. He's more 'now'. You know?"

Sam stopped on the curb and stared at a man on the corner. He wasn't anyone special; just stood there with a grocery bag. "That's it, that's the sign." Through the darkness a bright light illuminated the man.

"What?" Dean looked, he didn't see anything but the guy.

"You can't see it? That's him, that's the guy."

Sam started towards him but Dean grabbed him back. "You can't just go kill someone because a ghost told you to, are you insane?"

"I'm not going to kill him, I'm going to stop him. Dean he could hurt someone, you know that."

Dean nodded a little. "You know you're right. But you're not killing anyone. I'll follow the guy."

"Dean."

"Not an option. Kayla, stay with him and make sure he does the séance." He got in the car.

"But…" He drove off. "Why do I always have to be the babysitter? What did you guys do before I was here?"

"Well obviously we were hopelessly lost." He smiled to hide his frustration with Dean. "Let's get this over with so someone can be right today."

Sam wanted to be right about this so badly; he _needed _to be right about this. He needed some kind of sign that they weren't ridding the world of evil for nothing. There had to be a higher power, there had to be a greater good. What else are they fighting for?

Kayla helped him set up for the séance. She skillfully laid everything in its place and lit the candles as he began the incantation; her Latin was a little rusty at best. Sam read through the pages like they were written in basic English.

"This isn't going to change anything you know."

Sam stopped and looked at her.

"Just in case, if this really is Father Gregory just lost and confused. It doesn't change the fact that God exists."

He wished it would have comforted him more than it did. This may not shake her faith like it was going to shake his. Sam looked over his shoulder as Father Reynolds walked in. _Crap._

Kayla stood quickly. "Father Reynolds. Um, I can explain."

Sam looked at her, she claimed it.

"See, um, this is for Father Gregory."

"This is a house of God." Father Reynolds accused. "You two come with me."

As they turned to walk out, a bright light appeared in front of the tombstone of Father Gregory. Sam's face dropped, along with his spirits. So much for faith.

Father Reynolds stared. "Is that an angel?"

"No." Sam stated flatly. "It's just Father Gregory."

The light faded and there stood Father Gregory, in all his non-angel, un-restful spirit glory. Damn. He smiled softly at them.

"Thomas."

"I've come in answer to your prayers." He said to Father Reynolds before turning to Sam. "Sam, I thought I sent you on your path. You should hurry."

Kayla swallowed. "Father Gregory you're not an angel. You're just a man, a spirit."

"I was a man, now I'm an angel."

"Thomas no." Father Reynolds said to him softly. "Men can't be angels."


	5. Chapter 5

Dean followed the mystery man down several streets. He watched him stop at a house, drop some stuff off, pick some stuff up, pick a girl up, then disappear. _Where the hell did he go?_ He turned the corner and was gone. Dean parked the Impala at the side of the street.

"Don't let anyone mess with you baby."

He pat the hood and made his way down the street. About half a block down there was a small side street, nice and discreet, that the car had stopped. Dean let his eyes adjust to the darkness and focused in on the car. From the shadows he saw that the guy had some kind of weapon on the girl, probably a knife that he was waving at her. _You mother fucker._ His mind flashed to Braden Robert, that useless excuse for a human being and he was furious. He ran to the car and smashed the driver's side window in. This son of a bitch was gonna pay. He started punching him hard in the face, it was difficult from the angle but the guy soon lay motionless. Dean slid over the hood of the car as the girl was getting out and grabbed her by the shoulders.

"Are you ok?!" She was beyond comfort, she was still panicking. "Hey, are you ok?"

"Yes, thank God…" She sobbed.

The car started up again and screeched down the street. "Damn it! Do you have a cell phone?" The girl nodded. "Call 911." Dean ran back to the Impala and took off after the guy. He wasn't getting away.

He stayed close on his bumper while the idiot tried to outdrive him. Please. Their tires squealed around corners, slid across loose gravel but they weren't slowing down. Then they saw the potential accident ahead of them at the same time and slammed on the brakes. A truck carrying steel pipes was nearly sideswiped by a car running the stop sign; both had to swerve to avoid being hit. As a result, one of the pipes slid down and bounced off the pavement, sending it directly through the potential rapist's windshield.

Dean stopped and caught his breath. That was insane. He got out of the car and examined the scene; the guy had been rammed through the heart with the pipe, just like that. It was almost like something was gunning for him, like…a divine intervention.

After that he booked it back to the hotel. Sam and Kayla were already back, Sam was busy packing and Kayla stood up when he walked in. He was thankful that she went to kiss him right away because it made him seem less desperate to see her than he was at the moment. Dean wrapped his arms tightly around her, almost protectively and kissed her firmly.

"Well hey to you too." Kayla smiled.

He breathed. "How'd it go?" Off Sam's look he could pretty much guess.

"It wasn't an angel, it was Gregory." Sam stared sullenly at his things before zipping up his bag. "I just, I wanted to believe so badly." He sat down on the bed. "It's so hard to do this job and with my destiny, with what I might become, I just wanted to believe that I could be saved."

Kayla nudged Dean slightly. "And I was just telling him that just because this one event didn't happen to be divine intervention, doesn't mean there isn't any."

"Well I don't know about all that." Dean replied. "But it's funny you should mention it, because that guy was bad news, and now he's dead."

Sam looked up, concerned. "Did you kill him?"

"No. But the way he died, I swear if I didn't see it myself I wouldn't believe it. It was like…I don't know."

"Dean what happened?"

He thought for a moment. "Maybe…God's will?" He didn't know what he saw; not for sure. But if that wasn't God's will he didn't know what was, it sure looked a lot like smiting the wicked to him. It made sense as much as it didn't make sense. God's will kicked in before that guy could even do anything, but where was He before? Where was God when mom was killed? Where was he with dad, or with Kayla when she was still a teenager? None of those things should have happened, none of them deserved it and yet those were the facts. Why did He get to pick and choose? Dean shook his head and kicked his shoes off; maybe he had a little more faith than he thought, maybe not.

::_Authors Note::_

_Coming this week…Sam takes a trip to the dark side, and brings along a passenger. Born Under a Bad Sign coming soon!_


End file.
